Dell releases Nvidia mobile GPU update

Following numerous reports of issues with Dell's notebooks featuring Nvidia mobile GPUs, the company was forced to react and issue an update for ten of its recent models packing Nvidia graphics.

According to Dell, the issue is not unique to their products, so don't be surprised if you see similar announcements from other vendors, as well. Dell is taking no blame for the mess, saying the departed GPUs failed due to a weak die/packaging material set which could not cope with GPU temperature fluctuations.

As we said, ten SKUs are affected, including models from Dell's XPS, Vostro, Latitude and Inspirion series notebooks. In case you've got one of them, keep an eye out for the following symptoms: multiple images, random characters on the screen, lines on the screen or video playback difficulties. In case you've already faced one of them, it's too late and the BIOS update won't help you and you should contact Dell immediately.

New systems are being shipped with the updated BIOS revisions, and updating the BIOS on older machines should help mitigate the risk of GPU failure, but nonetheless this will leave a bitter taste if you've got one of the affected systems.

You can check if your Dell notebook is at risk and download the BIOS update here.